Juventus and Rennes met at Allianz Stadium in the UEFA Europa League league phase, and the shape of the match explained the scoreline far better than the bare numbers do. Juventus and Rennes finished level at 2-2, and neither side ever found the single moment that would have settled it. The turning point came at the 6 minute mark, when Zeki Çelik struck it with quality, and everything that followed was played in that new landscape. Neither Juventus nor Rennes could find a way through, and the 2-2 draw left both of them looking for the same thing. 41554 supporters filled Allianz Stadium, and the noise never really left the players alone. Neither side arrived in the best form: the last five results read W L D W L for Juventus and D L W W L for Rennes, and both sets of players knew what a slip would cost.
Match facts
- Date: 22.10.2026
- Kick-off: 16:45 UTC
- Venue: Allianz Stadium, Torino, Italy (41689)
- Attendance: 41554
- Referee: Morten Krogh (Denmark)
- Competition: UEFA Europa League 2026/2027 – Matchday 3
- Starting line-ups: Juventus (3-4-1-2, Coach: Luciano Spalletti) / Rennes (5-3-2, Coach: Franck Haise)
- Scorers: Zeki Çelik 6′ (Juventus); Mousa Tamari 15′ (Rennes); Boulaye Dia 43′ (Rennes); Nick Woltemade 67′ (Juventus)
Juventus lined up with Guglielmo Vicario, Federico Gatti, Gleison Bremer, Lloyd Kelly, Zeki Çelik, Douglas Luiz, Teun Koopmeiners, Andrea Cambiaso, Weston McKennie, Randal Kolo Muani, Nick Woltemade in a 3-4-1-2, while Rennes answered with Brice Samba, Abdelhamid Aït Boudlal, Charlie Cresswell, Anthony Rouault, Bryan Reynolds, Mahamadou Nagida, Adrien Thomasson, Valentin Rongier, Mahdi Camara, Boulaye Dia, Mousa Tamari in a 5-3-2. Luciano Spalletti and Franck Haise led their respective sides from the touchline, and both had a plan for the first hour that they wanted to keep intact.
Goals and key moments
Goal details, minutes and scorers are the part of the record that separate one evening from another. At the 6 minute mark, Zeki Çelik struck it with quality, with Nick Woltemade supplying the pass that made it possible, and 1-0 was the consequence. It was a chance worth 0.4 expected goals, which is exactly why it was worth taking. That strike changed the temperature of the evening: from that point Juventus could play for the counter while Rennes had to take risks in the spaces that had opened up. 15′: Mousa Tamari scored cleanly, Bryan Reynolds helping it over the line, and it was 1-1 almost immediately. The chance itself carried 0.29 expected goals of weight, and the goalkeeper had no answer to it. The opening goal of the night arrived at the 43 minute mark, when Boulaye Dia converted the penalty for 1-2. The goalkeeper would say afterwards that it was worth 0.79, and that is the harshest measure of all. Nick Woltemade converted the penalty at the 67 minute mark, and the scoreboard read 2-2. Put simply, the chance was worth 0.79 expected goals, and the finish was better than the situation deserved. Not every opening was taken, though, and the chances that were missed told their own story. Taken together, the goals gave the evening a shape that the scoreline on its own never explained.
The tactical picture
Juventus started in 3-4-1-2 under Luciano Spalletti, while Rennes answered with 5-3-2 under Franck Haise, and those two shapes decided most of what happened on the field. The midfield was the part of the pitch both sides wanted, and the numbers show who managed to take it. Neither manager was willing to hand the central ground over for free, and the shape of the game followed that refusal. Juventus’s 3-4-1-2 was the sharper of the two systems, and Rennes’s 5-3-2 spent longer than they should have without the ball. Juventus pressed high and won the second ball, which left Rennes unable to build from the back and forced them into hopeful passes. The width of the pitch worked against Rennes, who kept trying to attack down the same flank and were closed down every time. Transitions were the story: Juventus moved the ball forward at speed, Rennes could not. The tactical conversation between the two benches was as much a part of the evening as the movement of the ball itself.
Statistical comparison
The statistical picture is as revealing as the scoreline itself. Expected goals told the sharper story: 2.23 for Juventus, 1.66 for Rennes. Juventus attempted 14 shots to Rennes’s 16, with 4 on target against 5. The numbers that decide matches rarely tell the whole story, but they narrow the argument down to a very small area. Possession finished at 54 per cent for Juventus against 46 per cent for Rennes, and it is worth noting which side actually used it. Juventus won 7 corners to Rennes’s 5, and that is where most of the set-piece danger came from. Juventus completed 442 of 509 passes against 380 of 451 for Rennes, a difference that shows how differently the two sides circulated the ball. Fouls were committed 14 times by Juventus and 10 by Rennes, with 0 and 0 red cards in the official count. The goalkeepers made 3 and 2 saves respectively, and on a night like this that work decides how the result is remembered. The duels went 44 to 48, which is usually the cleanest single indicator of who was prepared to spend effort on the ball. Tackles were completed 16 times by Juventus and 12 by Rennes, and the duels that followed tell the same story as the rest of the evening. Juventus managed 11 shots from inside the penalty area compared with 10 for Rennes, which is the clearest single indicator of where the game was actually played.
Discipline and substitutions
Discipline and substitutions shaped the second half more than the scoreline suggests. Juventus collected 1 yellow cards and Rennes 1, with Federico Gatti (20′), Abdelhamid Aït Boudlal (82′) among the bookings. The caution count of 2 in total meant the referee had to manage a game that was becoming increasingly physical around the halfway line. Both coaches used their changes: 5 by Juventus and 3 by Rennes, with the last substitution of the evening coming at the 90+1 minute mark. The emotional temperature of the evening rose and fell with the challenges and with the decisions taken by both benches. Morten Krogh took charge of the match and had a relatively straightforward evening by the standards of the competition.
Player of the match and the standout performers
Individual performances separated the two teams across a full ninety minutes. Nick Woltemade of Juventus was the player of the match with a rating of 8.4, and every touch that mattered carried his name on it. For Juventus, the best individual rating belonged to Nick Woltemade (8.37). For Rennes, the best individual rating belonged to Mousa Tamari (8.21). The gap between the best performances on each side was the reason the result never really looked as comfortable as it was. The goalkeeping was worth a mention too: Guglielmo Vicario made 3 saves for Juventus, and Brice Samba made 2 for Rennes. Across the two squads the highest individual ratings read Nick Woltemade (8.37), Teun Koopmeiners (7.96), Mousa Tamari (8.21), Abdelhamid Aït Boudlal (7.85).
What the result means for the league phase
Juventus on 7 points from 3 matches, in 7th place with a goal difference of +6 and Rennes on 5 points from 3 matches, in 13th place with a goal difference of +1. Juventus arrived with W L D W L in their last five and Rennes with D L W W L, so the result fits the run both of them have been on. Neither camp will be satisfied with a point, and for both of them the next round carries a little more weight than it would have done yesterday. What the numbers cannot show is how hard the result was worked for, and how differently the two sides will remember it. The next round of the league phase will tell more: whoever adjusts first in the coming days will be the one who controls the group.